GOD’S WORD FOR APRIL 5

HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!!!!

Today, we go back to Dr. Ironside’s  sermon, written in 1934, with an excerpt on Christ as the Light of the World.

HARRY IRONSIDE—CHRIST AS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, GIVEN AT THE CROSS

One glory of the cross is the glory of sacrificial light. “I am the light of the world.” Light is sacrificial. It is the nature of light to give itself. This earth this morning is the altar on which the sun is sacrificed, and it is light. It is taken by leaf and bud and grass and flower; nature receives light from the sun, and if the sun should decide not to give itself, not to be sacrificial, it would cease to be the sun. There would not be any more light in the heavens. “If the light that is in you be darkness how great is that darkness.” If you begin to live for self and try to turn back the light on yourself and just keep it for yourself there will be no light at all. There will be simply darkness.

What is light? During one era, geologists tell us there were great forests and these forests, through convulsions of nature, were buried, and as the result of heat and pressure we have the coal beds of Pennsylvania and Wales. What are they? Imprisoned light. Light that was taken in from the sun when the forests were here, conserved in leaf and fiber, buried out of sight during the centuries, just imprisoned light; and we dig out this imprisoned light and put it through a process we call combustion, and the light that was taken in from the sun is let loose and we use it in various ways.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” How did He become light? By the Sermon on the Mount? Not at all. By His parables? Oh, there is much of light in the Sermon and in the parables; but He became light not by what He spoke, but through the process of combustion, of consummation; it was on Calvary that Jesus Christ became light.

1 Peter 1:18–20 is sometimes cited. Peter says, “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you” (ESV). Before God created the world, the Father and Son established an eternal covenant of redemption. This means that the sacrificial death of the Lamb was not an afterthought but was a part of God’s perfect plan of redemption: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24, ESV).

** *

And then He turns to us and says, “You are the light of the world.”

How do Christians become light? I made a sermon once on that very text, the subject being, “Christians good reflectors of light,” and I thought it was a nice little sermon. I can get some good points. The reflector must be at the right angle, and keep the dust rubbed off, and keep it in the light; but the trouble about it was it didn’t come out of the text, and there is no text I can find that it does come out of. It doesn’t say, “You are reflectors of light;” but “You are light,” and there is a difference between reflectors and light. Reflection is a cold process. You cannot raise a crop by moonlight. You must have the light straight from the sun, and this way of reflecting light will be a cold process. You are the light. How am I to become the light of the world like my Lord? Listen, “I beseech you, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” “If anyone would be my disciple let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” and it is by the process of combustion, of sacrifice, that the Christian becomes light unto those about him; and there is a glory in sacrificial light. All the glories of nature, the bloom of the flower, and the beauty of the landscape come from the sacrificial light of the sun giving up itself for the beautifying of nature; and the glory of Christianity is not so much the light it gives; but in the sacrificial spirit of the followers of our Lord.

*** ***

John 8:12

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.

** *

Psalm 4:6

There are many who say, “Who will show us any good?” Lord, lift up the light of Your face  upon us.

** *

Psalm 18:28

For You will light my lamp; The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.

** *

Psalm 36:9

For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.

** *

Psalm 37:6

He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday.

**  *

Psalm 43:3

Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle.

** *

Psalm 112:4

Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness; He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.

Published by liveinthelightofourlord

View all posts by liveinthelightofourlord